Inosuke Hashibira is one of the contemporary swordsmen of Demon Slayers with the protagonist,Tanjiro .
He, together with Tanjiro and other companions, took part in the Final Selection of Demon Slayer and fought together. And he is one of the five that survived.

He is a "beast" that can't be simply described by the word "wild boy". And he is a swordsman with two sword who always shows his upper body and wears a scalp from boar.
His petphrase is "HEADLONG RUSH! ", which represents his way of life.

Character

Inosuke Hashibira is a rude and churlish person. And he is also extremely crude.
He was abandoned by his mother for some reason in infancy and raised by wild boars in the mountains.

Because he’s grown up considering fighting with other creatures as his survival value, he only sees others as "the weak ones who don't have to be his opponents" or "the strong ones are worth becoming his stepping stone in order to make himself stronger." He has the desire to compete with opponents anyway who are better than him, however, for opponents who have fighting ability but have no desire to fight, he shouts, "coward".
His desire to fight will not be reduced even when there is no one to fight with. He will shout loudly and hit the trunk with his body pointlessly. He is literally a beast!

Growing up in the mountains, he is incapable of understanding people's common sense. For example, he kicks weak girls, he does not understand why the dead should be buried, he eats with his hands, he would be angry with the lighting fire and regard it as a threat, and so on. In addition, he can't even read or write. (The literacy rate at the end of the Meiji period was about 98 percent.)

Inosuke can basically communicate through language. He covers his lower body with clothes, has his own name and is capable of saying his name. He does not kill people casually. From all of these above can he be considered as a "person".
He is very susceptible to other people and has changeable personality.
He wears Fundoshi with his name on it, but it was originally Okurumi (a cloth rolled up to make it easy to hold a baby), in other words, it was his mother who had written his name on the cloth and abandoned him.
Although he has the ability to say his own name, he cannot write his name because he cannot read or write as mentioned above.

He was abandoned on the mountain and raised by a boar who had just lost her baby.
Originally, if a child grows up to a certain age (about 12 years old, this is called Critical Age) without being exposed to human language, he cannot master it. Inosuke could not speak human language and lived in the mountain like a beast. His ability to speak human language was influenced by two people.
It was a young man, Takaharu, and his grandfather who lived in the mountains where Inosuke grew up. One day, when the young man who was living an ordinary life was not at home, young Inosuke came to his home. He got food from his grandfather, from then on he often came to the young man's house.
At that time, the young man mistook Inosuke who was covered with scalp of boar for beast, the young man cursed him with vicious words and then drove him away. Inosuke came to his home again without learning a lesson. He learned language from Hyakunin Isshu the old man read, and he knew his name from the Fundoshi he wore at that time. At the same time, he also remembered rude tone of the young man and took his home as his own place and gave him rice cakes from time to time.

In contrast to his muscular physique and rude tone, he is a "fair youth" who has regular and delicate features and deep and shining eyes like emerald (however his voice is ugly and he cannot carry a tune).
Daki, Upper Moons Demon, who only consumes beautiful humans, rates him as "beautiful boy" and treats him as a prey.
In addition, when Zenitsu saw his plain face for the first time, he felt uncomfortable and said: "He is muscular, however, he has very beautiful face like a girl."

He doesn't really want to remember other people's names. He basically calls people by their nicknames or gives them random names.
When he remembered the name of Tanjiro in the beginning, he called Tanjiro Kamaboko kenparo. Later, the audience occasionally refers to the combination of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke as Kamaboko Team.
It seems that he can say the name of the person correctly once every seven times. In the next preview of the animation, he calls the name of "Tanjiro" correctly (according to rumors by the anime version of Taishou Secrets).

As a demon slayer, he did not undergo the training conducted by the cultivator. He defeated the demon slayers who entered his field and took their equipment to participate in the final selection. He was the first one to pass the final selection. He mastered the same fighting ability as Tanjiro who got stronger after two years of hard training, which shows his brilliant talent.
Moreover, in the final selection, Inosuke left without taking part in the explanation meeting, so Tanjiro who was the last one to pass the final selection did not know that they were contemporary members before meeting him in later task.

He not only has stronger physical ability than other demon slayers, but also because he grew up in mountain, his intuition is very accurate (he reacts quickly to the danger), The power of his two swords is very strong, and he masters many powerful techniques, his combat ability is very strong and balanced, no wonder he was the first one to pass the final selection.
On the other hand, he is not good at thinking, he doesn't know the strategy and can only take direct action, so he doesn't get along with demons who play shady tricks.

He knew Tanjiro when they were on a mission together, and then, as he started to build connections with many gentle and kind-hearted human beings, his consciousness slowly got to change, especially when he saw the more powerful Flame Pillar, he began to think about what is the true meaning of power.

Ability

Sense of Touch

Tanjiro has an excellent sense of smell, while Inosuke has an unrivalled sense of touch.
He also exposes his upper body in the sun to maximize his ability of passive sensor by increasing area of his skin.

Physical ability

He was trained in the mountain to be as powerful as the beast, and his physical ability was even stronger than that of the demon slayers as a "human" after improving themselves to the limit through hellish training.
Moreover, Inosuke's body has a high degree of flexibility, and he can effortlessly make complex gestures like acrobats, so he can also take irregular gestures in unstable footings and air to release a powerful slash that ordinary swordsmen would not consider. This is because when fighting with demons with rich combat experience, ordinary people will fight with common sense, and his fighting style can be even more unexpected.

In addition, he has the ability to fight with all his heart and soul in the case of four broken ribs. He is very tolerant of pain. Plus, all joints of his body can be removed freely, and these joints can be combined to create an upgraded technique that ‘As long as there is enough space to accommodate the skull, he can pass through anywhere.’

He is highly resistant to drugs, and poisons do not work for him, therefore, to some extent, this ability can eliminate the disadvantage in the battle against the opponent who uses the deadly poisons. On the other hand, therapeutic drugs have no effect on him, so the advantages and disadvantages of this ability are obvious.

He learned or stole techniques from defeated demon slayers in competition, it is not clear whether he master similar breath technique by himself. However, he, like other demon slayers, can significantly enhance the heart and lungs, allowing a large amount of oxygen to enter the blood at once. "Full Focus Breath" can be instantly enhanced his physical ability to the level of demons.
His breath style seems to be close to Breath of Wind by nature. In terms of the color of The Nichirin Sword, he is suitable for "water" and "rock". There is some doubt about the adaptability of Inosuke.

Equipments

Originally, everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps was provided with customized Nichirin sword (members can choose personally from the original ore) and team uniform, however because Inosuke went to the final selection without participating in the explanation meeting about supplies, so the equipment he use was snatched from other teammates he defeated.
In addition, there are Kasugai Crows that are assigned to convey tasks and engage in supervision, however....

The Nichirin Sword

This sword is made of scarlet iron and ore, which are collected from the mountain closest to the sun and shined by the sun all the year round. Because immortal demons can only be killed by the sun, so this knife is the only weapon that can cut off their heads and kill them.
This sword is also known as the "color-changing blade". The color of the blade changes according to the owner, and swords of different colors possess different characteristics.
Please see here for details.

The first generation

His sword was taken from other demon slayers, so his sword was not made for himself. The color of that sword was white-silver, just like other ordinary swords. There was no blade, the handle of this sword was only rolled with some cloth, and the blade is broken in several places. It did look like a ‘stolen thing’ in every aspect.
He said with pride that he was proud of the sharpness of his sword. As he said，he can use a serrated blade to cut objects like a saw.
His two swords could not bear the physical strength of the "The Father Spider Demon" in Natagumo Mountain, broke off and flew away.

The Second generation

After the war in Natagumo Mountain, Inosuke got a new sword during his recovery in Butterfly Estate. The knife maker is Kanamori.
The color of the blade is bluish-gray, belonging to the color system of cyan and grayness. Inosuke himself seems to have the suitability for Breath of Water or ‘Breath of Rock’.

The blade was shining with dim light, and there was a pattern of Phoenix(the combination of the two knives was Phoenix) on the blade. This was a sword with elegant design, however, Inosuke forced Kanamori to change the blade to the same one as before, which made Kanamori very angry. Pray.

Team uniform

The team uniform is black Gakuran with a word “SLAY” on its back.
The uniforms are made of special fibers, this uniform have good air permeability and are waterproof and fireproof. In addition, the uniform was so strong that the demon's claws and fangs could not tear it apart.
As mentioned above, Inosuke has a high sense of touch. In order to prevent his discomfort from touching clothes, he only wears pants.

Kasugai Crows

Kasugayi. This kind of crow is capable of understanding human language and speaking. Each demon slayer is assigned with a crow which appears out of nowhere and communicates the location of the mission and the strange things that happen there. Inosuke had eaten eighteen crows before joining up with Tanjiro, and his crow hid after they joined up. Since Inosuke basically completed the task of slaying demons before joining up with Tanjiro, it seemed that he might be able to communicate with his crow somehow.
In addition, he said he would eat Tanjiro's crow.

Although it is a digression, Sparrow is more suitable for eating.
The meat of crow isn't inedible, however it's quite hard and smelly, so it needs take a lot of time and energy to cook (Its ingredient is similar to that of whale meat). That is to say, it will taste good when cooking with curry.

Scalp of boar

This is the scalp from the boar. Inosuke doesn't seem to like his lovely appearance. He even wears the boar's scalp when he sleeps. This is the remains of the female boar that raised him, known as the "Lord of the mountains".
Therefore, Zenitsu Agatsuma who saw with him long after the final selection and the ordinary people who see him suddenly regard him as a pig-headed monster.
In addition, he has the fur of deer around his waist and the fur of bear around his feet.